NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE BARDO, MUSEUM OF PREHISTORY AND ETHNOGRAPHY

This ancient «Moorish» villa, nestled in the heart of a garden, has very interesting collections of most of the remains found during excavations in Algeria. Classified as a historic monument since September 1985, the museum, inaugurated in April 1930, is composed of two buildings that could be used for the visit alone. It contains traditional elements of Ottoman architecture (low doors, quarrels, green courtyard, etc.) decorated with precious wood, ceramics and wrought iron. A time of General Exelmans, the Ottoman part was built at the end of the th century by a Tunisian who gave him the name of the palace of his hometown, in his suburb, then called Mustapha. For summer stays, the "djenane" was surrounded by gardens and orchards full of fountains and basins; today it houses the collections of ethnography. The museum's courtyard shows different aspects of Algerian life (Moorish coffee, kitchen, interior interior, crafts, etc.). A room shows the variety of traditional costumes in Algeria. On the top floor, the exhibitions are dedicated to the Hoggar. The second building dates from colonial times and was built in 1879 by a certain Mr Joret who wanted to add dependencies to the old home. Eight large rooms, bathed by the light of the day provided by large glass windows, host prehistoric collections, cave carvings with the remains of Tin Hinan, the legendary ancestor of the Tuareg, deposited here near the jewels found in the tomb of Abalessa near Tamanrasset. See also the fragments of jaws and crests of a Atlanthropus mauritanicus that lived about five hundred thousand years ago in Ternifine, in the region of Mascara.